Online School: Do We Need a Long-term Plan?

Online school - Do we need a long term plan?

Coronavirus has meant most students have experienced remote learning over the last two years. However, their experiences haven’t all been the same. School provisions, teaching and learning styles, and home environments are some of the reasons a student may learn better or worse at home than at school. This has been a serious issue and major talking point, but widespread remote learning might not be a one-off instance that will go away with COVID. With the advance of the Climate Emergency, remote learning may need to become more commonplace, here are our thoughts…

The Climate Emergency will first and foremost increase the number of natural disasters happening in the UK and worldwide. It will also increase the likelihood of pandemics by creating perfect conditions for viruses to spread and mutate. Both of these things could prevent students from reaching school by blocking transport routes, impacting their physical health or a host of other reasons. If and when this happens, under the current education system, students who can’t make it into school will have a worse quality of education than those who can.

Ensuring students can receive equal educational opportunities in these scenarios could mean online schooling becomes part of normal school life so that when students can’t come into school, they know how to work from home lessons are delivered to the same standards online and in person. Perhaps curricula will have to become more flexible to allow teachers to deliver modules in different orders, as some benefit from in-person learning more than others. Student provisions would certainly need improving because of course, not every student has access to the same technology at home. Many students could benefit from local learning hubs as a quiet place to learn when they are cut off from school and in an unsuitable home environment. These could also assist with safeguarding measures for students with difficult home lives. 

Furthermore, contextual learning such as climate education is often one of the first things to fall by the wayside. For a lot of students, the experience of online learning has been challenging. For me, the usual fast-paced, engaging lessons were replaced by strained conversations. Alongside the backdrop of interrupting pets, noisy roadworks and faltering signals I saw the ease and pace of my learning reduce. Alongside the stress of the healthcare emergency and being thrown into this challenging environment, it was left to our teachers to maintain motivation and press forward with content. This meant something had to give. Unfortunately, in most cases, that was contextual learning. Synoptic and cross-curricular linking that, in the classroom, would stimulate essential conversations and thought-provoking ideas became a laborious use of valuable time. Spontaneous debates where teachers could pull in their own knowledge of topics like the climate crisis became strained and difficult to conduct. Without designated space in our curriculum and training for teachers, my (already sparse) experience of climate education disappeared.

Ultimately, the experience of online learning is different for each student. With the probability of remote learning becoming more frequent in the future, it’s more important than ever to ensure we have an accessible education system, provides equal opportunities for all students and supports teachers in shaping motivated, well-rounded and analytical students.